A teacher has been found guilty of attempting to meet a schoolgirl for sex after being caught up in a sting.

David Simpson, 49, chatted online to a woman in her 20s ,who was posing as a 15 year old girl, and arranged to meet her for sex.

Jurors at Burnley Crown Court heard how their conversations repeatedly mentioned her age as being 15 and a virgin, but Simpson claimed he had always known the person he was speaking to was an adult.

Simpson arranged to meet the woman, who was still posing as a teenager, in Birmingham for sex but was instead confronted by a man named Stinson Hunter, who creates fake profiles in order to trap people grooming under-age children and had also invited a reporter from a national newspaper.

Simpson was found guilty of attempting to meet a female under 16 intending to commit a relevant offence and will be sentenced on January 24.